Intrapreneurship and Corporate Venturing 407SUMMARY
The modern large corporation needs intrapreneurs and corporate venturing in order to
survive and grow. There are many similarities between entrepreneurial and intrapreneur-
ial processes, and there are also significant differences. The primary difference is that the
intrapreneur must always consider the corporate environment.
Intrapreneurship can be accomplished using variations of a simple five-step process.
Companies like IDEO, while being creative and innovative themselves, help other com-
panies by employing processes that bring new information and insights to the corpora-
tion. They use archetype personas to accomplish this.
The basic innovator’s dilemma is that incumbent managers find it almost impossible
to adapt to disruptive change and technology. From their perspective, the best use of the
company’s resources is sustaining change—making current products and services better.
Doing things differently or doing different things fails to meet corporate standards and
seems to cannibalize current offerings. The innovator’s solution is to create stand-alone,
independent venture units managed by intrapreneurs to promote the innovations. Many
other guidelines for success are offered. The key is to recognize that the organization
context will affect the intrapreneur’s path.KEY TERMS
Applied research
Basic research
Blue Ocean
Buyer utility map
Corporate entrepreneurship
Corporate venturing
Development research
Disruptive innovation
Elimination
ERRC grid
Four actions framework
Internal corporate ventures (ICV)
Intrapreneurship
Leveraged buy-out (LBO)
Portfolio tool
Price corridor of the mass
Red Ocean
Six paths framework
Skunk works
Strategy canvas
Sustaining innovation
Tag line
Technical innovation
Technology clusters
Technology funnel
Technology spillovers
Value innovation
Visualization exercise